That's a very good map in my opinion. I have only two observations, which I fear some will reject as petty comments.
The lake you have in the mid left hand side @ The Bleaks would not approach so near the coast. It is highly unusual for the outfall (departing stream/river) from such a lake to take the long route to the west to reach the coast with the coast being so near the northern edge of the lake. There would also be short streams/rivers flowing into the lake from the peaks nearby.
At the river confluence beneath Harren Howl on the way to High Court there would be a sizeable settlement due to the manner in which typical trade flows. I don't have a good sense for the scale of your map. It appears it would be several days travel by land from Harren Howl to High Court. Usual trade patterns would have a town or city at the river confluence so average farmers and loggers could take their goods that far and sell them, and then return home earlier. It was a big deal for common folks to be away from home for days at a time back then.
Your technique for showing the coastline is very good with the extra faint outline and the waves. If you were to add color, the softest bit of blue would be wonderful. Your technique for showing woods is also very attractive. I think I'll (steal) start using that myself. The irregular fluffy plateau with the shaded edge is great. Of course here pale shades of green would be best. I depict conifer and deciduous forests with different patterns.
As for a story to explain the map, you need to pinpoint each settlement and come up with a reason why there is a settlement there. This is usually because there is a resource found there or as a trading hub such as the missing settlement I noted above. There may be a few settlements for purely strategic reasons, but they would be rare and need a conflict in history, not necessarily active anymore, to justify their construction. Once you have decided why each settlement exists, make sure you could explain how they obtain the food and water needed to sustain it.
With all this information you should do a bit of brainstorming to decide where are the political boundaries. The populace inside a single political area exhibit some degree of cohesion if not homogeneity. Once you have decided on the political boundaries, you have to decide what is the political system and who/where the rulers are for each region. After that, what are the political conflicts active in your world and where are the uncivilized forces that create turmoil? How do the political leaders deal with this turmoil at present?
I'm sure you will do a great job of it and I hope you share more of your work.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
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These are the drawings for the map of my campaign world. I would love criticism and ideas about its history.
That's a very good map in my opinion. I have only two observations, which I fear some will reject as petty comments.
The lake you have in the mid left hand side @ The Bleaks would not approach so near the coast. It is highly unusual for the outfall (departing stream/river) from such a lake to take the long route to the west to reach the coast with the coast being so near the northern edge of the lake. There would also be short streams/rivers flowing into the lake from the peaks nearby.
At the river confluence beneath Harren Howl on the way to High Court there would be a sizeable settlement due to the manner in which typical trade flows. I don't have a good sense for the scale of your map. It appears it would be several days travel by land from Harren Howl to High Court. Usual trade patterns would have a town or city at the river confluence so average farmers and loggers could take their goods that far and sell them, and then return home earlier. It was a big deal for common folks to be away from home for days at a time back then.
Your technique for showing the coastline is very good with the extra faint outline and the waves. If you were to add color, the softest bit of blue would be wonderful. Your technique for showing woods is also very attractive. I think I'll (steal) start using that myself. The irregular fluffy plateau with the shaded edge is great. Of course here pale shades of green would be best. I depict conifer and deciduous forests with different patterns.
As for a story to explain the map, you need to pinpoint each settlement and come up with a reason why there is a settlement there. This is usually because there is a resource found there or as a trading hub such as the missing settlement I noted above. There may be a few settlements for purely strategic reasons, but they would be rare and need a conflict in history, not necessarily active anymore, to justify their construction. Once you have decided why each settlement exists, make sure you could explain how they obtain the food and water needed to sustain it.
With all this information you should do a bit of brainstorming to decide where are the political boundaries. The populace inside a single political area exhibit some degree of cohesion if not homogeneity. Once you have decided on the political boundaries, you have to decide what is the political system and who/where the rulers are for each region. After that, what are the political conflicts active in your world and where are the uncivilized forces that create turmoil? How do the political leaders deal with this turmoil at present?
I'm sure you will do a great job of it and I hope you share more of your work.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt